LARP in the Park
by danahscott
Summary: 'a mutual friend tried to introduce us, but we already knew each other from LARPing but we're both too embarrassed to admit that so i jokingly said we used to date and oh god now our friend wont stop interrogating us about it' scorbus au


In the end, it was Rose who brought us together. There was this boy in her lit class, really cute, she had said, and just my type too. Now, I was used to Rose's various attempts at setting me up. If it wasn't lit class, it was karaoke night, and if not that, then a cute nurse she met when she passed out from heat stroke during yoga class. None of them took. I would tell her and tell her, "I'll find a guy when I'm ready to find a guy. And it won't have a thing to do with _your_ meddling." It would never phase her, though. I think she'd refer me to every gay guy she knew. It just didn't make any sense to her. She'd been dating Pablo since high school and the idea of being happy while you're single was unfathomable to her.

"C'mon, just say hello. It's only polite! It'll only take two minutes." She pulled me through the mob of people trying to get to their next class. I was seriously regretting going to the same university as her. Her grip on my sleeve tightened and she pulled me towards the wall. After a second of wiping the sun out of my eyes, I saw the guy she was telling me about. And he was cute, I'll give her that.

He was short. Shorter than me at least. A mess of blonde hair was brushed lazily to the side, and he was leaning against the wall, so lanky that he was almost perfectly diagonal. And there was something almost… familiar about him? I couldn't exactly put my finger on it. Then, Rose gave me a little shove, causing me to almost stumble over my feet. That caught his attention, and he pushed his sunglasses off his face as Rose stepped between us.

"Scorpius! I was just looking for you! I wanted to introduce you to my cousin! His name is-"

"Albus?" He cut her off. My stomach began to churn. Oh, no. God, no. Please, please, anything but this. Anything else.

"What, you two know each other?" Rose asked in astonishment, probably because I've actually spoken to another guy. She looked between the two of us, whipping her orange braid to the other shoulder. Scorpius smiled and in the midst of my panic, I noticed that he had aged well since high school.

"Yeah, actually. We used to…" He trailed off, looking at me with his eyebrows furrowed. I was shaking my head as violently as I could, hoping he would get the picture. "...date. Albus and I, we, er, used to go out. With each other. For cuddling." I winced. I guess his improv left something to be desired, because I knew his acting wasn't half bad.

"No way!" Rose cried, apparently not picking up on the blatant lie. "Albus, why on earth didn't you tell me when you had a boyfriend?"

"Well, you were so hung up on me and Felix, your friend's roommate, remember?" Rose blinked, shaking her head slightly.

"Huh." She said, looking back at Scorpius. "Was it serious?"

And, get this, like a freaking rom com, Scorpius said "yes," the same time I said "no." I squeezed my eyes shut. This had to be a nightmare. I'll even go on a date with the grocer at Rose's favorite market.

"Actually," Scorpius chimed in, "that's why we broke up. Different places in the relationship. To be quite frank, I'm devastated over the whole thing. Nothing's been the same since Albus left me." Bloody hell, he was laying it on thick.

"Well, what say you come to lunch with us? See if we can reignite the old spark, huh?" She looked at me expectantly, and all I could was feebly nod my head as I tried to recollect my thoughts, figure out how I was gonna pull this lie off.

One thing was for sure though. No way was I telling my cousin that we met doing Live-Action Roleplay. Yeah. That's right. LARP in the park.

-::-::-::-::-::-::-

We walked over to New Cabin Bistro, that new restaurant that had opened up on campus. Rose had been itching to get me to eat there with her for weeks. She must have been having the time of her life. First, what she thinks is a successful set-up, and now she's wrangled me into eating at this stupid restaurant. Scorpius, who seemed highly amused with this whole situation, ordered the Italian Sausage.

"I'll have the same thing," I told the waiter, but then Rose shot me a look and I _really_ didn't want either of them to get the wrong idea so I decided to get the white bean salad.

"So," Rose started, after taking a long sip of lemonade, "how'd you two meet?"

Before I could say anything, Scorpius chimed in, "In the park." He was seriously toeing the line here. Frankly, I just wanted lunch to end already so we could shake hands and go our separate ways. I must have been sporting a pretty pathetic look or something, because Scorpius' face softened. "I was jogging. Ran right into him."

I shot him what I hoped was a grateful smile. Rose pushed her chair back, causing a long scraping sound that made me wince. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom," she said, already heading in that direction. And then, as soon as she was no longer within Scorpius' eyesight, she added, "might be a while," shooting a wink my way. I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

There was a long, awkward moment of silence before I finally decided to say something. "Thanks, y'know, for going along with this." Technically, it _was_ his idea to pretend to be my ex, but whatever. Scorpius only nodded mutely, so I decided to keep going. "I mean, I figure neither of us want this getting out or anything."

"Well, not exactly," he said.

"Oh."

"Yeah." I didn't really know how to respond, and I guess Scorpius could tell because he gave a warm laugh that settled in me like bubbles in champagne. "I'm just… I'm not going to be embarrassed over something that made me happy." I considered this for a moment.

"Wish it was that easy for _me_ ," I tried to joke, but I was worried it just came out awkward and insensitive. But he laughed again and I started to remember those days back at the park, both of us laughing so loudly and obnoxiously that the dog walkers would glare at us as they passed. I remember not caring that they did. I remember just enjoying spending time with him and the guys, and how the sun would set his white-blond hair on fire.

"Scorpius," I said finally, and his smile was so warm and hopeful that I wondered if he'd been remembering too. "Would you like to get coffee sometime soon? Properly?" His smile grew wider, and I felt mine growing too. I hadn't even realized I was smiling to begin with.

"Yes. I'd like that a lot." There was a moment of silence and then, before I knew it, Rose was sliding into her chair again, asking what she missed. "Nothing," I told her, still looking at Scorpius. "Nothing at all."


End file.
